David Young looks ahead to the Harlequins match

"We've compiled a squad which is very competitive and I think we've shocked a few people that we are in this position."

would like to welcome the supporters of both the Blues and the Harlequins to tonight's match, and also extend a welcome to Dean Ryan and all his players and coaching staff.

Obviously we were all disappointed with the result against Edinburgh last Friday. The conditions meant it was always going to be a scrappy, messy and tight game which it was. Although limited, we did have more opportunities than Edinburgh, but failed to nail them which proved to be our downfall.

Unfortunately we are going through a little bit of loss of form and momentum at the moment which all teams go through in a season. It's how we respond to that which is important with two massive games coming up. We feel there are areas where we know we must improve on but we are confident that we can do that and get back to playing the way we were.

Our kicking game as a team has to improve, one on one tackles have to be made, plus better ball handling skills and taking opportunities we create are also areas which need to improve. We are missing key players which doesn't help and upsets our balance, but at the end of the day we are working on improving week in week out.

Harlequins are a typical English team in that they play a big physical game, with a good driving line out, strong scrum, very much gain line orientated with two very big centres and plenty of pace to burn out wide. They kick the ball a lot, so field position is paramount to them and we've got to control the ball and control the pace of the game. If it's a slow set piece orientated game, which they will set out to do, it could cause us problems. There's no pressure on them now and their focus will be to come down here and spoil it for us and they are certainly capable of doing that.

We don't know what kind of team they will send. They went to Bristol with not many of their recognised first team players. We're preparing for both sides - the team that played Bristol which was very much their second team and the team that played us, which was very much their best team. We can only play what's in front of us. However I think it's more about us than about them, the wins we've had this season have been because we've played well and got things right.

I think this is the first season we've had a realistic opportunity of reaching the last eight for a number of years. There's only one reason we haven't before and that's because we haven't been good enough. However, we've compiled a squad which is very competitive and I think we've shocked a few people that we are in this position. What we have to do is keep our squad fit for both games as we are a bit stretched and make sure we take our opportunities. It's not an easy path and we still have a lot to do, but we feel are capable of doing it.

Obviously we hope for a victory against Harlequins and for Stade to beat Bristol in Paris. That would put us in a better position going to Bristol. However, I think it could all go down to the last game. We haven't spoken about Bristol yet and our focus is solely on our job tonight.

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